Ukiah's Redwood Empire Spring Fair

It's a beautiful spring day at the fairgrounds with plenty of entertainment for both young and old alike. Inside Carl Purdy Hall, delicious smells emanate from the PartyLite booth, the largest candle manufacturer in the world. They sell in 18 countries with candles made from wax of food grade paraffin and soy, lead-free wicks and essential oils. It's vendor Karen Lehman's first time at the fair and she sees at as a hometown, family-friendly event.

Around the corner is Ansar Syed's booth, a corner of the hall filled with deep, dark delicious colors of Jamawar Kashmir wool (lamb) and Pashmini wool (goat) robes displayed over brilliantly-hued wall hangings and shawls, all intricately hand embroidered, creating a panoply so rich, so vivid, as to never want to look away.

Syed is from Kashmir, India, and says it's what his family and neighbors do. "We live for this, our art; it's our livelihood." He points to one robe with needlework so deep and complex there's not an empty space and says it took 18 months to complete.

They raise the animals, weave and dye the wool, design the garments and embroider, all by hand. There are earrings, rugs, belly dance bells, anklets and breastplates.

Tim Kline has a booth with his custom made frames. He likes it at the fair. "It's exciting," he says. "We are full of optimism. There's something about a fair; even if I don't sell anything, it's fun."

John Hathaway sits in a booth among his many bird and bat houses. He visits abandoned dumps and estate sales and makes his products out of old recycled wood and junk with all sorts of things adorning the structures: an antler, a broken muffin tin, moss, lichen, rocks, a cattle comb, a metal logo from an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, a rake handle, a faucet from a fire hydrant.

Outside on the concourse Kimberly Hutchins attempts to get a ball in the basket so she can win the big unicorn for her daughter, five-year-old Millie. Her husband Charles has already given it a shot and toddler Parker watches contently from his stroller. They will stay for most of the day, leave for t-ball practice and then return in the evening for the monster trucks and the food. She says, "They kids love the monster trucks. We come to watch our kids enjoy themselves. This is the first year our daughter can go on all the rides."

And there are a lot of stomach-churning rides out there. There's the Freak Out that Alice Traphagan just exited and although she said it made her stomach drop, she would ride it a million more times.

Ten-year-old Zoe Alvarado is sitting with her grandmother Anna Alvarado and three friends, Alicia Campbell, Sara Lieben and Ruby Veno, in the shade next to The Zipper.

Grandma explains they will be there all day and are taking a break and are in the process of negotiating their next ride - the Supershot. Of the experience of being on The Zipper, Alicia says it was thrilling, that she felt like she was going to fall out of the cage and die; Zoe enjoyed the adrenaline rush of being upside down; Sara says it was scary, sort of fun and that she felt like she was going to puke and fall out; and Ruby says Freak Out made her sick but it was awesome.

Just getting off The Teacup, 12-year-old Alex Santana stood by her friend, Alyssa Wilson, bent over double unable to contain the contents of her stomach. Relieved, they were soon up for more gut-spinning highs because? they are fun.

Eleven-year-old Damien Childress jumps down gingerly from the steps of Freak Out, eagerly searching for his next ride. His mother Jessica says she comes to watch him have fun. He says his favorite ride is the high-flying pendulum, 1001 Nachts, where he can go up so high that when he looks down his mom looks like a tiny bug. He says he felt like he was going to fall and that he likes that feeling.

Rachel and Galen Prosser are resting their elbows on the railing of The Corvette, watching their three-year-old Lily drive her blue and green car around in circles. They've been there since noon and will stay until naptime.

Dotty Bergmen is seated under a tarp with her Friendly Farm, a traveling education farm animal exhibit featuring Oscar, the 30-pound, micro-mini pig, who plays a toy keyboard with his snout. Bergmen says he knows about a dozen tricks. She brings out two of Oscar's tiny progeny; they are about a month old and their charm is alluring. Eight-year-old Mikaela Furia has a pig from a previous litter that lives in the house with her family and sleeps in bed with her. She says they are very easy to house train.

There's more to the family farm: a brown pygmy goat, a black and white Nigerian goat, Babydoll, a four-month-old lamb, a mini donkey, a 27-year-old miniature horse and a borrowed Jersey calf.

There's still a bit more: a Chinese crested duck, a runner duck that stumbles over curbs, a black standard Cochin rooster that crows at 3:30 a.m. every morning, a mini-Rex rabbit and a mini lop rabbit and the tour de force - a mille fleur bearded d'Uccle bantam hen; she's a lovely sight with her black and gold speckled body and two baby chicks scurrying around her feathered feet.